Abstract

Huckabee (1) has appraised anaerobic metabolism in whole animals and in intact organs by determining the ratio of lactate to pyruvate concentrations in plasma, and by calculating "excess lactate." Such "excess lactate'' has been used as an index of tissue hypoxia. That this approach has been popular is shown by the large number of papers currently appearing in the medical literature. Three papers in this issue of the ANNALS are examples of this trend.

A review of the evolution of this idea and the assumptions on which it is based, has suggested to me that some caution should be exercised